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This is my weekly column from the local newspaper.

First of all, Happy Early Birthday to my mom, AND to my twin daughters. Their birthdays are Tuesday, April Fool’s Day. Cannot believe the girls are 21 this year. How did that happen?

You watch the news and it’s sometimes very difficult to believe that God is up there. I mean, surely He’s got to be sickened by what He sees on CNN (and I don’t just mean Nancy Grace). School shootings left and right, families found dead, suicide bombings in Iraq - it’s just one big mess. So when I see good things happening to good people, I take notice.

One of the best places I’ve found to see the goodness in people is the blogosphere. I’ve been blogging for well over 10 years in one form or another and I’ve really come to know some fantastic people, particularly in the last couple of years. My best friend, Hilary, is someone I met through blogging, too.

You see it all the time: bloggers writing about their charities and causes, and other bloggers are pretty quick to step up to the donation plate. For example, last year I wasn’t in a financial position to make it to BlogHer, the annual women’s blogging conference. My friend, Karen, set up a donation fund and weeks later I found I had enough for my plane ticket. Pretty cool, considering I didn’t know over half the people who donated.

Remember last year when I went to Portland, Oregon for a blogger get-together called TequilaCon? It really didn’t have anything to do with tequila specifically. I mean, you can go and drink whatever form of alcohol you want. OK, so I’m sure there were a handful of people who weren’t drinking booze, but I didn’t see them. Maybe you’ll remember the story about me locking myself out of my hotel room at 3:30 in the morning, wearing nothing but my boxers. I was sleepwalking. Or drunk. Or drunk-sleepwalking.

Come May 2, I’ll be heading to Philadelphia for the TequilaCon ‘08. There ought to be at least 50 people there, I think. It’s a great time, really, and you get to meet some amazing people. This year, Hilary was in financial need to get to TequilaCon and so some friends quickly came to her rescue. Another donation fund was set up and this time Hilly had enough for a plane ticket within 12 hours. TWELVE HOURS. That’s incredible. Thirty-five people donated a little to make sure Hilly can get to Philly. Makes my heart cockle…or something. I’m not exactly sure what “cockle” means but I know my heart has some.

Another blogger friend does a great deal for the March of Dimes every year and set up a donation page on his blog. Not sure yet how much money was raised, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s in the thousands. A new friend of mine, British fellow, helped establish a fund for parents who have lost a child. Very nice guy - he came on my Internet radio show to talk about the fund - and I hope he got more donations out of it.

I’m always stating one of my mantras: “It all comes out in the wash.” And I believe that. When I have a little money to give, I give. When I don’t, others will. And yes, it all comes back to you in the end. For $20 I can help with cancer research, or the March of Dimes, or getting Hilly to Philly. And for a little while, all seems okay in my world. Then I turn on the news.

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I hope everyone had a great Easter yesterday. I particularly hope that you found every one of your Easter eggs. I happen to know from experience that you don’t want to lose one of those suckers and find it again six months later…behind the middle leg of the sofa. Not a pleasant smell if you break those eggs that far down the road.

Also, a big Happy Birthday to Dave2, my proud blogging buddy of almost many couple of years now. Hope it’s a fantastic day, dude. Looking forward to partying with you at TequilaCon.

Also also, click the Send Hilly to Philly button in my sidebar. Gots to get Hilly to TequilaCon, so go give a buck or ten.

This is my column from the local newspaper.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of all the presidential campaign politics. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are at each other’s throats now, doing exactly what I knew they’d wind up doing, despite their constant cries months ago that there’d be nothing but unity in the Democratic party. Yeah, right. Unity.

Even though I’d put my money on Obama to be the Democratic nominee, we’re not going to see a definitive nominee for months and months. Hillary just won’t have it. I’ve never been a fan of Hillary, ever since it cost the American taxpayers $49 million to find out her husband is a liar. Sure, maybe it’s wrong to condemn someone just because their spouse made a mockery of the White House. But hey, she’s the one that decided to stay married to the guy. Am I not supposed to question her judgment? Plus, her outfits are just hideous. Did you see Hillary’s St. Patty’s Day getup? Ugh.

And I’m tired of the brouhaha surrounding the Michigan and Florida delegates not being seated. Florida is whining because they decided to break the rules of the Democratic national party by holding the primary a few weeks early. Granted, I don’t see why it was such a big deal to reschedule the primary, but what do I know? The point is that the Democratic party TOLD Florida what would happen if they moved the primary up. The Democratic party TOLD everyone that the Florida delegates wouldn’t be seated at the convention. But Florida officials still went forward with the cruddy plan, anyway.

I’m all for voting, and yes, I believe every vote should count. But I also think that if you can’t follow the rules, and you ignore clear warnings, then you should just lie in the bed you made and shut up. You’d think, after the 2000 election (when I wasn’t yet living in Florida), we’d have learned a lesson in the Sunshine State. Wasn’t one botched election bad enough?

Now the voters are left in a lurch, even though they voted in the primary just like they were supposed to. And even though Hillary won Florida and Michigan (who, by the way, is looking at a primary do-over in the coming months), it really doesn’t count because those delegates she won aren’t getting seated at the convention this summer. Naturally, she wants to seat those delegates. I mean, she didn’t gripe about the rules before the Florida primary, but now that she’s won it, she needs those delegates.

Florida has recently said to the Democratic national party, “Forget you. We voted. We’re not spending money to do ANOTHER primary when the voters have already spoken. YOU figure it out.” And the Democratic party has a problem on their hands. The race is so close that they NEED to seat Florida and Michigan. In the end, the Democrats will likely pay for a solution (translation: taxpayers will get screwed again) because Florida couldn’t follow the rules. And that really means the rules don’t apply to everyone, doesn’t it?

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This is my weekly column from the local newspaper.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

It was a big concert weekend for my mom. We both have season’s passes for Cypress Gardens and hit the occasional show there. Saturday, Mom went to see Frankie Avalon and Fabian and some other old guy I can’t remember. I didn’t go to that one. Mom told me all about it, how there were people coming up on the stage to dance. I told her it must have been weird to see. Decades ago women were throwing their panties on the stage for these guys; now they throw Depends.

And as I write this, we’re about to head out to Cypress Gardens again for an Oak Ridge Boys concert. I admit, I’m far from a country music fan, but I do at least know one of their songs: “Elvira.” That one guy has a seriously low voice from what I remember. Still, I’m setting a bad habit, going to another country concert. I just went to Mel Tillis not all that long ago. Pretty soon I’ll be crooning along with Hank Williams, Jr., wearing cowboy boots, and chewing large wads of tobaccy. Then I’ll start collecting old beater cars on my lawn and having beer for breakfast.

Speaking of beer for breakfast, it’s St. Patrick’s Day. Happy Irish Day to each and every one of you. Even if you’re not Irish, today you are Irish for a day. Get out there and buy some green beer, wear green clothes, and randomly kiss people full on the lips. Don’t blame me if you show up on tomorrow’s Police Blotter, though.

I’m definitely part Irish - my grandmother saw to that.  Funny, I lived in England for three years when I served in the U.S. Air Force. Never made it to Ireland in all that time. I’d love to hang upside down and kiss the Blarney Stone. Heck, if I can jump out of an airplane, I can do anything.

In reading up on St. Patty’s Day for this column, I came across a list of countries and how they celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. In Canada, like the United States, St. Patrick’s Day is not a federal holiday, except for Newfoundland and Labrador. Unsurprisingly, Guinness is petitioning to make it a national holiday. I love Guinness and if they declared the new season of “Dancing with the Stars” a must-watch show, I’d be hard-pressed to stop from tuning in.

In Argentina, they party in the streets, drinking beer all the way up until 8 o’clock the next morning. Those people know how to get down with the green. In Denmark they’re celebrating with a 3-legged charity race in Copenhagen. Last year they donated the funds to kids with cancer. This year, they’re giving the money to a neonatal department at a local hospital. I haven’t run a 3-legged race since Field Day in grade school. Somehow I suspect that I’m not much better at it now than I was then.

They even celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Japan, where they have a big parade in Tokyo. The island of Montserrat? It’s the only place in the world, save Ireland and those two Canadian provinces where St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday. They’re known as the “Emerald Island of the Caribbean” because they were founded by Irish refugees.

I guess it’s time to break out the corned beef and cabbage. Yuck, not a fan. But hey, you do what you have to do for your Irish heritage. Now, where’s the Bailey’s for my coffee?

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